Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps is she taking to help improve pay and conditions in the further education sector.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Further education (FE) colleges, rather than the government, are responsible for setting and negotiating staff pay and terms and conditions within colleges.
In May 2025, the department announced a further £190 million investment for colleges and other 16 to 19 providers in addition to the £400 million of extra funding we already planned to spend on 16 to 19 education in financial year 2025/26.
Across the Spending Review period, we will provide £1.2 billion of additional investment per year in skills by 2028/2029.
This significant investment will ensure there is increased funding to colleges and other 16 to19 providers to enable the recruitment and retention of expert teachers in high value subject areas, and interventions to retain top teaching talent
Targeted recruitment incentives of up to £6,000 (after tax) are available for eligible early career FE teachers working in key science, technology, engineering and mathematics and technical shortage subjects, in disadvantaged schools and colleges (including in Sixth Form Colleges). This payment is separate to teachers’ usual pay.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if the Government will declare a national emergency regarding the cross Channel small boat migration crisis.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The number of small boat crossings is too high and this Government is taking action. The Home Secretary has announced the most sweeping reforms to tackle illegal migration in decades, removing the incentives that bring illegal migrants to the UK and scaling up the return of those with no right to be here.
The Border Security Command is central to this effort, bringing together law enforcement, intelligence sharing, and international cooperation to disrupt smuggling networks and bring perpetrators to justice. For the first time, we have mobilised the whole of government and all operational partners to deliver a coordinated and prioritised range of activities in the UK and with partners overseas. Our historic deal with the French means those who arrive on small boats are now being sent back.
The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act, which came into force on 5 January 2026, provides new powers to seize electronic devices from illegal migrants and introduces offences targeting small boat smuggling and concealment in vehicles. These measures strengthen our ability to disrupt organised immigration crime and reduce irregular migration.
Disruption of organised crime groups has intensified, increasing domestic action against organised immigration crime (OIC) via enhanced powers and intensified law enforcement operations, targeting upstream facilitators, disrupting OIC business models via targeting, the illicit financial flows, small boat equipment supply chains and online networks of organised crime groups (OCG)s.
We have boosted the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) capabilities through an extra £100 million funding which will pay for up to 300 extra NCA officers, state-of-the art detection technology and new equipment to smash the networks putting lives at risk in the Channel. This approach is working; the year ending September 2025, there were 3,162 OIC disruptions conducted by public bodies, 33% more than in the previous year (2,374). The number of OIC disruptions has steadily increased from an average of 392 disruptions per quarter in 2023, to 791 per quarter in the latest year.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of current levels of funding for music education in schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As part of the national curriculum schools are expected to fund the delivery of music teaching from their schools budget. The government has committed to putting education back at the forefront of national life, with school funding increasing by £3.7 billion in financial year 2025/26, meaning that core school budgets will total £65.3 billion, compared to £61.6 billion in 2024/25.
The government also invests £76 million per year through the Music Hubs grant, including this academic year. This supports 43 Music Hub partnerships across England to offer a range of services to schools, including musical instrument tuition and whole-class ensemble teaching. To widen access, the government is also investing £25 million in capital funding for musical instruments, equipment and technology.
We intend to establish the National Centre for Arts and Music Education by September 2026, and the funding will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding is planned for National Centre for Arts and Music Education beyond March 2026.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As part of the national curriculum schools are expected to fund the delivery of music teaching from their schools budget. The government has committed to putting education back at the forefront of national life, with school funding increasing by £3.7 billion in financial year 2025/26, meaning that core school budgets will total £65.3 billion, compared to £61.6 billion in 2024/25.
The government also invests £76 million per year through the Music Hubs grant, including this academic year. This supports 43 Music Hub partnerships across England to offer a range of services to schools, including musical instrument tuition and whole-class ensemble teaching. To widen access, the government is also investing £25 million in capital funding for musical instruments, equipment and technology.
We intend to establish the National Centre for Arts and Music Education by September 2026, and the funding will be set out in due course.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the total cost was of procuring, fitting, and monitoring alcohol tags in each of the last three years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Financial records allow us to provide the direct contractual costs of alcohol monitoring which include the cost of the tag purchases and system monitoring but do not distinguish between case type for Electronic Monitoring in terms of tag installation or physical monitoring and therefore the table below excludes these costs for the three years. Costs also exclude probation and other criminal justice system partners’ resource supporting EM in the community.
As a result of our record investment in electronic monitoring, we are tagging more offenders than ever before. The technology is playing a significant role in the Government’s mission to take back our streets from alcohol-fuelled harm, which the National Audit Office estimate costs the UK economy £21 billion a year. Evidence is increasingly proving the effectiveness of tags, with offenders banned from drinking alcohol staying sober for 97% of the days they were tagged.
| 2023/24 | 2024/25 | 2025/26 |
(Actual) | (Actual) | (Actual) | |
Procurement and System Monitoring of Alcohol Monitoring tags | £8.1m | £12.5m | £15.2m |
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the press release entitled People across UK to benefit from easier access to local services as councils get digital boost, published on 22 November 2025, what proportion of GDS Local’s work will be with County and District Councils in a) 2025-26, b) 2026-27 and c) 2027-28.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
GDS Local is a new unit within the Government Digital Service that brings central and local government together to improve how digital public services are designed and delivered.
GDS Local has a mandate to support all councils and local authorities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, including County and District Councils. It is currently developing its strategic objectives and delivery plans to ensure people across the UK benefit from easier access to local services, including supporting the ambitions in the Blueprint for Modern Digital Government.
At this time, no specific proportion of work has been allocated to County and District Councils for future financial years, as the unit intends to take a whole-system approach to supporting local government across the UK. This includes working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Local Government Association to support County and District Councils going through Local Government Reorganisation.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how much funding her Department plans to provide to help improve IT skills in the next 12 months.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology will spend up to £42m across the 2026/27 financial year and £187 million over the next four years delivering the TechFirst programme. As announced by the Prime Minister in June 2025, TechFirst is designed to strengthen the UK’s domestic tech talent pipeline by improving the IT and digital skills of children in secondary schools, as well as undergraduate, masters, and PhD students. The TechFirst programme also includes a grant fund to help skilled individuals into work.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what proportion of research funding is allocated to epilepsy research; and if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of this proportion.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Medical Research Council (MRC), which is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), has committed a total of over £25.5 million since 2018/19 on epilepsy research, including over £9.5 million in 2024/25. This research spans discovery science and fundamental understanding of the disease, through to new approaches for diagnosis and intervention. MRC also supports epilepsy research within its portfolio of larger investments. For example, this includes a new MRC Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) in Restorative Neural Dynamics which aims to develop brain stimulation devices to treat a range of conditions including childhood epilepsy, and the UK data platform for Traumatic Brain Injury research (TBI-REPORTER) which includes post-traumatic epilepsy as one of the areas of focus.
The Department of Health and Social Care also funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR has funded a range of ongoing epilepsy research and has awarded £12.8 million to studies in the last five financial years. The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including alternative treatments for epilepsy.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to ensure broadband providers have robust governance and independent assurance arrangements in place, including internal audit, to support cyber resilience and protect digital infrastructure.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government keeps the financial health of the market under close review and Ofcom have powers to request financial information from providers. The Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021, and its associated Regulations and Code of Practice introduced a robust security framework requiring public telecoms providers to identify, reduce, and prepare for security and resilience risks.
We recently held a public consultation on proposed updates to the Telecommunications Security Code of Practice, which provides guidance on how public telecoms providers can meet their statutory requirements to secure their networks and services. These include requirements relating to reviews, governance and board responsibilities. Ofcom monitor and enforce these requirements.
In response to the consultation, the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors raised the matter of independent assurance arrangements. We are now carefully reviewing all feedback to the consultation to ensure that any updates to the Code of Practice are appropriate and proportionate.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of independent assurance arrangements in place by broadband providers, including internal audit, to support the identification, management and mitigation of major risks.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government keeps the financial health of the market under close review and Ofcom have powers to request financial information from providers. The Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021, and its associated Regulations and Code of Practice introduced a robust security framework requiring public telecoms providers to identify, reduce, and prepare for security and resilience risks.
We recently held a public consultation on proposed updates to the Telecommunications Security Code of Practice, which provides guidance on how public telecoms providers can meet their statutory requirements to secure their networks and services. These include requirements relating to reviews, governance and board responsibilities. Ofcom monitor and enforce these requirements.
In response to the consultation, the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors raised the matter of independent assurance arrangements. We are now carefully reviewing all feedback to the consultation to ensure that any updates to the Code of Practice are appropriate and proportionate.